Alliance Francais, the French language and Culture organisation, Heritage Bank, a leading financial institution, and TravelStart, Africa’s top-rated online travel agency, partnered with Beige and Crow to host a single experience of spoken word, music and visual arts at the Exposition Experience event on Thursday, 14th of December 2017 at the Miliki Lounge, Victoria Island, Lagos. The event was curated by a spoken word poet, REZthaPoet and a visual artist, Sylvester Aguddah. Beige and Crow is an experiential art and culture management firm based in Lagos, Nigeria.
The Exposition Experience event was inspired by REZthaPoet’s Exposit album which explores the relatable experiences of love, greed, comradeship, disharmony using folklore, music, modern imageries, and a hybrid of languages.
ReZthaPoet, as he is fondly called, is involved in different cultural and artistic shifts using the spoken word poetry to engage and entertain a growing elite and displaced middle class.
The event opened with the exhibition of the works of Slyvester Aguddah, a profound visual artist whose works are impressionistic on the surface but filled with narratives at the background. Aguddah is a full -time visual artist whose works had been exhibited in Germany, Turkey,the United Kingdom and at home. The collage technique in the Exposit works of Aguddah has the ample realism of the cinematic and the metaphorical as both sound and words are felt without seeing them.
Speaking on the connection between both artists, Adebola who is better known as Retzthapoet explained that the connection between them comes in the body of works that thrives on the theme of culture and identity from different perspectives which he noted is further espoused by deployment of creative techniques, that deviates from norms and exploring contending narratives on cosmopolitan stereotypes until they meet late last year.
Both artistes had tested their versatility and experimental flair at the Renaissance Hotel with
audiences like DJ Jimmy Jatt, Elajoe, Illblis participating in the performance at the Renaissance Hotel in September 2017.
The event also had sonorous music orchestra, and live music performances from RnB star, Isaac Geralds, Soukous and Pop artiste, Koffi, and culture music diva, Kayefi. Soul Rebel Korede, a poet from the French and Anago-speaking part of Benin Republic was also on stage to perform his resonating poem ‘FoKan Bale’ amongst others poems in
passionate and luxuriant French.
REZthaPoet performed alongside Kayefi with the orchestra in ‘Awoof’, a work that clearly pictures the minutest sense of greed in the similitude of gluttony and extends it to the history of gross embezzlement in the landscape. REZthaPoet and Kayefi also performed ‘Asake’, a love ballad to a woman with the Orchestra.
Both artists displayed cultural and dramatic nuances giving a unique version of the singles in the Exposit album. The stage displayed the Exposit works of Slyvester Agguddah while REZthaPoet pumped in more Spoken Word works like ‘Bliss’, a personification of poetry that connotes heritage, language, words and experience, ‘I am’ a poem that asserts identity using the Oriki tradition and quests for identity in a cosmopolitan continent.
Speaking on the event, country manager, TravelStartNg, Phillip Akesson commended the curator, Beige and Crow for putting it together noting that the event was an impressive space to connect with the culture and the people while
discovering more of their art, their friendliness and their experiences.
Among the guests that graced the event include music artiste, Ric Hassani, Spoken Word Legend, Sage Hassan, Fashion-art designer, Austin-Aihmankhu, Kehinde Ekundayo, art curator, Spoken Word poet, Efe Paul Azino, Country
Manager, Travelstart, Phillip Akesson, culture diplomats, corporate people, art lovers and friends of REZthaPoet and Sylvester Aguddah.
The event however provided opportunity for the partners to reflect on the gains of their connection with poetry and visual art.
While Alliance Francaise explores the use of language and culture to promote social advancement and unity in the country, TravelStart makes a right connection as travelers alike use experiences in their journey to different places to interrogate the impact of poetry and visual art.
The use of language and elements of culture in the contents, performances and expressions exploring Yoruba, English, Pidgin English and French languages also resonated with the identity of Heritage bank as many people now consider the need to secure their financial future.
